SAM GONZALES
Staff Writer
Pepperdine’s own Professor Ira Jolivet not only is a huge asset to the Religion Division, but is also a remarkable preacher at a local Church of Christ.
Ira Jolivet was born and raised in Houston, Texas. His elementary and high school teachers were always encouraging, but Jolivet never really understood what they meant by living up to your potential. “It wasn’t until later that I realized I could do anything I really wanted to, but it took me a long time to figure that out,” Jolivet said.
Religion wasn’t always the first thing on his mind. By the time he was 30 years old, Jolivet had three children and had already been torn in and out of the military. He was attending school in Houston working on a degree in finance and had a job at the local post office.
He and his wife went through some marital troubles and were close to filing the divorce papers.
One of his co-workers from the post office gave Jolivet a Bible, which he started reading immediately and couldn’t put down. It changed his perspective on life and family, which resulted in the couple working out their issues and deciding to make their marriage work.
“When I started reading the Bible, well not only reading it, but actually applying the principles to my life, I started treating my wife better and she noticed the change in me. So that is when we decided to try and make us work,” said Jolivet. Shortly after, he and his wife were both baptized.
Concerning Jolivet’s newly established devotion to the church, Jolivet’s daughter, Tabatha Jones said: “My dad and mom helped me come to know Jesus, and because of them, I’m now privileged to walk alongside them on this journey to become more like Christ.”
During that time, he was finishing up his semester at Texas Southern University majoring in finance. After being introduced to the bible, he no longer had any interest in business. He dropped out and never looked back. “All I wanted to do was just study the bible,” Jolivet said, “so that’s what changed my life.”
Two years after becoming a Church of Christ member, he was sent to Austin in order to obtain a degree in Biblical Studies. “While I was there I got hooked into the Letter of Romans,” said Jolivet.
Jolivet added: “Romans just grabbed me intellectually and spiritually. The more I read commentaries about it, the more I sensed that people still didn’t fully understand what Paul was saying to his original audience.”
After over 25 years of studying Greco-Roman rhetoric, Stoic philosophy and Jewish scriptures, Jolivet finally believes that he understands the argument of Romans and its applications for the church today.
He then went on to get his B.A. at the University of Texas at Austin in classical civilization, M.A. in Greek, and Ph.D. at Baylor University where he wrote his dissertation on Paul’s Letter to the Romans.
Right after finishing, Jolivet received a phone call from Richard Hughes, formerly from Pepperdine’s Religion Division, asking if he would like to interview for a job opening. Ultimately, Jolivet wanted to get away from working at the post office in order to make better money. He wanted a job that he could grow into and he believed that the position at Pepperdine was his opportunity.
When he first got the call, he had no idea what Hughes was talking about. But it ended up working out and they offered him a teaching position in 1993. He has been teaching at Pepperdine ever since.
“It was difficult moving all the way out to California but I was excited about coming out here and starting a teaching career,” said Jolivet. “But I still had a lot of concern because at that point I had to teach three courses while finishing up my dissertation.”
This would prove to be a huge transition in Jolivet’s life. The cost of living in California is so much higher than living in Texas, but the family eventually settled and adjusted to their new life.
One of the professors in the Natural Sciences Division was a member of the Woodland Hills Church of Christ. They had been looking for a preacher. The church asked Jolivet if he would come a few times to speak. A couple months later, they asked him if he would be willing to preach full-time.
Since he already had a full-time teaching position, Jolivet agreed to only preach on a regular basis, but was not able to commit to the pastoral type of work.
A lot of the elders at the church are also faculty members of Pepperdine, so they understand the profession and time commitment.
Jolivet is continually encouraging the congregation every Sunday. “I think that people suffer from discouragement more than anything else,” said Jolivet. “When I see that what I am doing is encouraging them, the I feel that this is truly what I was called to do in life.”
Jolivet adds: “I did it all by trusting in God. I’m on the other side of the mountain. Now, I can tell people who are still on the other side that if you learn how to trust in God, then you’re going to be all right too.
“The first thing you have to do is learn how to trust in God and then everything else will come. I have the experience now where I can say that and mean it, because I’ve lived it.”
Growing up as an African American in Houston, Jolivet experienced much segregation that he says still exists in some churches today. His life and ethnicity are greatly influential to the perspective of which that he teaches courses. At the beginning of the semester, Jolivet begins religion 301 by asking his students: “Why is Sunday morning the most segregated hour in America? And why do we still voluntarily segregate ourselves on Sundays?”
Usually, the response is: People just have preferences and different styles of worship.
Jolivet is a strong believer in the idea that God intended for people of all backgrounds to be together in the church. “That was the whole point of Jews and Gentiles. They had to overcome a lot of differences, but God still put them in the same church,” Jolivet said.
He added: “It is God’s job to judge whom he will save; it is mine to do the wrok he has given me to do.”
Jolivet is trying to create a diverse, yet still unified, church society, which he believes would then be reflecting the true character of God to the rest of the world. Jolivet said, “And when we don’t, the world just looks at us and says, ‘what’s so special about them? They can’t even get along together.’
“People get along better in sports organizations and businesses, than they do in the church. We ought to be leading rather than lagging behind to show what the power of God is really about.”
“My father’s capacity for love, his humanity, his love of justice and his endless pursuit of truth together reveal the very image of God,” said Jones. Jolivet’s unconditional love for his family and dedication to Pepperdine definitely confirms that any student who sits in his classroom should consider themselves lucky.
03-25-2008
